System Breaker: Surviving Apocalypse with Nine-Tailed Kitsune

Damon’s gaze shifted to Ivy, who, no matter how much he studied her, was human.

’What are you talking about?’ Damon asked Kitsune through their mental connection.

"You remember, don’t you? How she rose from the dead?" Kitsune replied out loud, making sure Ivy heard. A flicker of surprise flashed across her face as she listened. "It was a technique of a phoenix clan, and now, she stinks just like them."

Damon blinked. He remembered it clearly, after all, it happened on the same day he killed his best friend. The way Casper’s blade pierced Ivy’s back, and her body slumped to the ground. The way she rose from the ground engulfed in flames caught him by surprise, and while being in the middle of a battle against Kade, he had no time to dwell on it then.

’Is that what it was?’ he thought to himself, though it barely made any sense.

According to Kitsune, phoenixes were one of the six divine beasts, beings from her world, not his. Ancient creatures that existed on a different plane of reality entirely.

So how would Ivy, a human from Earth, have a connection to them? His gaze shifted back to her face.

The moment their eyes met, he saw it, not confusion, but recognition. A flicker of something that looked dangerously close to fear.

She knew.

Whatever connection she had to phoenixes, she’d known about it all along.

Before Damon could question her, the door to their right suddenly swung open.

Victor spoke before taking a proper look inside.

"Jax’s gone. He packed his things and left with three of the scouts. He’s not coming back."

Victor forced a couple of ragged breaths before he finally took a good look inside. His eyes flickered between Ivy, the complicated look on her face, and Damon and finally Kitsune, who had her arms still wrapped around Damon.

"Huh?" a flicker of surpise flashed across his face before she shook it away. "What do we do now?"

Damon looked at Ivy, who was already looking at him, before escaping Kitsune’s grasp and speaking up.

"We get stronger. Not just us, everyone in the Citadel needs to level up if they hope to survive."

Victor’s expression turned sour. "We tried, but they refused. Most have not even swung a weapon before."

"How many people are there in the station right now?"

"Around three thousand," Ivy replied.

Damon’s brows rose.

’They managed to keep that many people alive for so long?’

It was beyond surprising. A task of this scale must have required hours upon hours of planning. Ivy’s exhaustion had an entirely different meaning now, the dark circles under her eyes were basically a badge of honour, an indication of doing something almost impossible.

But it can’t go on for much longer. Those who refuse to fight are a liability, and with the monsters getting stronger every day, it was only a matter of time before they brought everyone else down with them.

"How are the food supplies?" Damon asked.

"We have enough food for two weeks, maybe three," Ivy replied.

"With Jax gone and the recent deaths in the scouting groups its going to be harder to get food now. They had a good map of the city, knowing where to loot and what to avoid." Victor joined in.

The amount of food needed to feed that many people must have been astronomical. Fewer scouts meant that once the current supplies were gone, they won’t be enough supplies to keep up with demand. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"We need to start right away. Those who refuse to fight, cut their supplies. Give them the bare minimum and see how long they last." Damon’s tone was flat. He had no empathy for leeches, and those who refused to fight were just that.

Victor looked visibly taken aback by Damon’s words. He knew it was the only way, but it still felt somewhat wrong to him to force people to fight.

Ivy, on the other hand, simply nodded along. She already figured that she just needed someone who shared her idea.

After finishing their discussion about supplies and the overall state of the station, Damon changed the subject to the Citadel itself.

From the very start of the conversation, Damon made it very clear that anyone below level 30 would be killed in an instant. He was surprised to hear that Ivy, despite spending most of her time managing the station, had reached level 31.

But even that wasn’t enough.

Dark elves, as Kitsune called them, were way past their second evolution, which meant that each was at least level 50.

Other than Damon, who could probably kill one or two of them, nobody in the station would probably stand a chance, not even Ivy.

With the clock ticking and time running out, each of them decided to take a group of people they would help level up.

Of course, those weren’t going to be just random people, but those who would play a crucial role in the battle to come.

The start was the deadliest part, at least according to what they had seen so far. Dark Elves struck without a moment’s delay, killing those who arrived. That’s why Damon was in search of people with particular abilities, those who can create walls, shields or other types of supporting defences.

’Let’s see,’ Damon thought as he flicked over a page of a notebook Ivy had given him. It was where they kept records of everyone’s abilities.

He was sitting in a small, makeshift room that Victor gave him.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the first page.

Name: Ivy

Class: -

Abilities: Fire Manipulation

Looking at the empty class, Damon frowned slightly. He recalled Kitsune’s words, how she said Ivy smelled like a Phoenix.

"What’s the deal with you and Phoenixes?" Damon suddenly asked out loud to Kitsune, who was lying on a small bed behind him.

"Mmm, how about you come over here, and I tell you," her voice purred with hidden intentions.

Damon knew very well it was a bait to lure him in, but wanting to learn more, he had no choice but to bite.